I thought to myself, “If we could try him this afternoon, waive the appeal, and sentence him at dawn, she could file her candidacy for the governorship in time for a campaign breakfast tomorrow morning.”
The real translation of Ms. Lamb’s position was that she had her ducks in a row and ready to quack-they being the two eyewitnesses. The sooner she could get the case to trial, the less time we’d have to find counterwitnesses or work on her two stars.
When she had run her course, Mr. Devlin rose slowly and addressed the court quietly. She had neatly laid the burden on the defense to come up with a good reason for delaying the trial.
“May it please the court, Ms. Lamb is zealous as always in her representation of the people. I think her zealousness carried her beyond her intentions this time. She couldn’t possibly mean that the commonwealth is ready to try this case.”
He paused, as if groping for the next word. I knew something was up. Mr. Devlin had never groped for a word in his life.
Ms. Lamb jumped into the pause with both feet.
“Mr. Devlin underestimates the commonwealth’s sense of duty in preparing this case, Your Honor. This is a vicious crime that has the entire Chinese community watching and waiting to see if justice will be done. I want it on the record that any delay will be the result of the failure of defense counsel to put his case in order.”
Mr. Devlin took the grandstanding in better grace than I would have predicted. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.
“I’m impressed, Your Honor, but I can’t believe the district attorney would consent to anything short of a two-month period before trial.”
She was on her feet, grinning a grin that I last saw on the lips of a trout just before I set the hook. “Your Honor, I assure you and Mr. Devlin that the people are ready to begin this case this afternoon.”
She was looking at the judge, but her insufferably smug body language was aimed at Mr. Devlin. The eyes of the judge and every reporter in the courtroom were on Mr. Devlin, while he played with the papers in front of him. I was more anxious than the rest to see what delaying tactic he could pull out of the air.
He looked up from the counsel table with an almost imperceptible grin.
“Your Honor, let’s call her bluff. I move for a trial date of this coming Tuesday.”
My eyes shot to Ms. Lamb. It was as if she had asked for a toy and got the toy store. Her eyes bulged. She had to forcibly close her mouth. I have to admit, it took me a few seconds to get my own breathing started again.
The judge registered something between controlled shock and indignation.
He was on his feet and heading for his side door when he issued the command, “I’ll see counsel in my chambers.”
He was at his desk, in robes, drumming a tattoo on the arm of his chair with his fingers, when our little band of Ms. Lamb, Mr. Devlin, and me paraded in. He didn’t bother to invite us to make ourselves comfortable.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, Mr. Devlin, but I’ll give you the ground rule. No one plays games in my court. This case is going to be tried by the book.”
Mr. Devlin accepted the noninvitation and sat down. Mr. Lamb followed suit. As for me, there were only two chairs.
Mr. Devlin calmly bit the words off in dead earnest. There was not a trace of a smile.
“This is no game, Your Honor. I’ve got a boy who could be sentenced to life here. There isn’t anything on earth I take more seriously. You say we try it by the book. The book says that defense counsel has the right to decide how his case is to be tried, as long as he isn’t shown to be incompetent. I’ve never been accused of that.”
The judge’s steam subsided.
“What’s this business about beginning this case on Tuesday?”
Mr. Devlin leaned back. “Anthony Bradley is the son of Judge Bradley. I’m sure you know that. I say that not to ask for special favors. But it does create a problem. The longer he remains incarcerated with men his father may have sentenced, the greater the chance he could be executed before the trial. Prison precautions are never perfect.”
Mr. Devlin nodded to Ms. Lamb, who was perched like a raven on the edge of her seat. She had the look of one who was beginning to look her recent gift horse in the mouth and wasn’t sure that anything that came that easily from Mr. Devlin could be totally in her favor. Mr. Devlin set the hook a bit deeper.
“The district attorney says she’s ready. In fact, she’s on record before the court and about fifty newspeople bragging about it. The defense is ready, Your Honor. You have my word. I say let’s get on with it.”
Judge Posner looked to Ms. Lamb for reaction. She was stymied. If Lex Devlin wanted a trial date that close, it had to be for a reason that could only endanger her glorious victory. On the other hand, Mr. Devlin had boxed her in nicely with the reminder that she’d be quoted in every evening edition and news broadcast as champing at the bit for quick justice. Hard to go back on that one.
She took the least awkward path.
“Your Honor, I said the people are ready. I’ll stand by that.”
The judge played with the tips of his reading glasses at the edge of his mouth while the mental tumblers clicked into place. He finally called his docket clerk over with the court schedule.
“What about this, Peter? How does Tuesday look?”
“You have a light schedule, Judge. Remember you were going to leave next Tuesday for the Colorado conference. That takes out the rest of the week. You just have a pretrial conference on Tuesday morning.”
The judge chewed a bit on his glasses before he looked up at his clerk.
“Set this down for Tuesday, Peter. Ten o’clock. Call Mary and have her move the pretrial back to four thirty Monday afternoon. And have her cancel my reservations for the conference. This is more important.”
Judge Posner looked back at the two combatants.
“You have what apparently you both wanted, counsel. Let’s go back out. I want this done publicly and on the record.”
I caught a cab back to my apartment by way of a brief stop at Mass. General. Lanny was sitting up in bed, as bright and pretty as if she had not just been bombed out of a car. It was clearly the bright spot of my day to see her, and the feelings we had three nights before seemed to carry over in spite of the circumstances.
It was a briefer visit than I’d have liked, but I needed a shower, a change of clothes, and a few hours’ sleep before a long night. It gave me the chance to think through the plan of attack Mr. Devlin outlined to me before we left the courtroom. I had to give the man credit for guts. Thank God he was lead counsel.
I had left him outside the courthouse, facing what looked like a porcupine of microphones in front of three rows of newspeople. The questions were coming six at a time, and I could see a bit of the old glory coming back in his eyes.
The phone brought me out of a sound sleep at six o’clock that evening. It had been dark for over an hour. Harry’s voice lifted me somewhat out of the after-fog of a daytime nap.
“Mike, what time are you leaving?”
I checked my watch. “I’d better get rolling now, Harry.”
“Good. You want to pick me up, or shall I meet you someplace?”
“You’re not coming on this one, Harry. I can’t repay you for what you’ve done already.”
“I want to see it through to the finish, Mike. Can you pick me up?”
How could I refuse? Besides, the company would keep me awake.
“Half an hour. We’ll eat on the road. Bring some coffee. And the dress code is definitely a business suit. Conservative tie.”
The ride to Canada was long, broken only by intermittent stops for food and changes of driver to keep alert. We crossed the Canadian border at six o’clock the next morning and drove the rest of the way to the motel where we’d left Mei-Li.
We picked her up and hit the road immediately. It was too close to Toronto to make it comfortable to spend excess time. Before we reached the U.S. border, we spread some blankets and made Mei-Li as comfortable as possible in the trunk of the car.
Whether it was the continual assault of the coffee on my nervous system, or the prospect of spending more years than I cared to think about in a federal penitentiary for alien smuggling, I couldn’t tell. I only knew that my
